Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Random Fuzzy

She celebrated World Refugee Day in Kenya, not Ethiopia. The assumption was that she would be in Ethiopia when it was announced
that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees was scheduled to go to Gambella. They kept plans for her appearance under wraps obviously for her security. She had told Mariane Pearl for ELLE France they were going to Africa but she didn't say exactly where:

What are your projects?
My work and my travels are limited right now for personal reasons. But I
look forward to our next trip around World Refugee Day on June 20th. We
are going to Africa. And the children love this continent. I think
it's important to show them the world in this particular period. In
life, one is often led to concentrate only on oneself, and I believe
that a broader view of things is fundamental. On June 20th, we're going
to be in the company of refugees and members of the U.N. I will also go
to the field to document the role of the military in the prevention and
suppression of sexual violence as a weapon of war. And I will also
continue to teach at the London School of Economics.

It sounded like she intended for the family to be with her but there is no sign of any of them in the photos so far. It's also possible what she meant to say was lost in translation.

As noted in the caption below, she also spoke before participants in the sexual and gender-based violence prevention course at The International Peace Support Training Centre in Nairobi. The trip was of course for UNHCR but perhaps even more for PSVI.

*****

brief observations:

- PSVI is a UK-led and funded initiative, it's no surprise that Arminka Helic and Chloe Dalton are both with her.

- She appears to be wearing the diamond pendant necklace she had on previously and a wide diamond band.

Angelina Jolie traveled to the African country of Kenya to observe firsthand the progress of the initiative against sexual violence that she helped launch.
The activist and special envoy to the office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees marked World Refugee Day by meeting
adolescent sexual assault survivors in the city of Nairobi, including a
girl who was the “same age as my eldest son, who is already a mother to a
child born of rape,” she said in a speech.
She then visited the International Peace Support Training Centre in
the city to observe a training session for military and police personnel
involved in U.N. and African peacekeeping missions. Jolie spoke to the
peacekeepers present, giving a speech highlighting how they are at the
“The reality is that women and girls, as well
as men and boys, can still be raped with near-total impunity in conflict
zones around the world,” Jolie, 42, said in a speech exclusively
obtained by PEOPLE. “The reality is that a peacekeeper may be the first
person one of those traumatized girls encounters after their abuse. As
peacekeepers you need to be absolutely clear what to do, because that
girl will be frightened, especially of a man with a gun. How do you
approach her, will affect her whether she is able to begin to recover or
if more damage will be done.”

Mark Henley/UNHCR
Jolie meeting with survivors in Kenya

Jolie started the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative
in 2012 alongside former Foreign Secretary Lord William Hague of
Richmond. Since its founding, the program has trained over 17,000
military and police personnel on sexual violence issues, and the PSVI
team of experts has been deployed more than eight times.
“It meant a lot to hear military gender
advisors and officers say what they believe and what they want others to
understand, that this is not simply about law and human decency. It is
about military effectiveness,” Jolie continued in her speech. “If
civilians do not have confidence in you as peacekeepers your mission
will not succeed. And while this training is clearly only a beginning,
it is the only way that we will begin to address the problems: working
nation by nation to raise standards and increase effectiveness.”
She concluded, “On behalf of victims of sexual violence I want to
plead with all of you to take this issue seriously and personally, to
use your position and your influence to spread this message within your
armed forces and on all the missions on which you serve.”

US
actress and UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie arrives to give a
statement in front of the sexual and gender-based violence prevention
course at The International Peace Support Training Centre in Nairobi,
June 20, 2017. /REUTERS

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Actress and U.N. refugee agency special envoy
Angelina Jolie on Tuesday denounced the impunity with which rape is
committed in conflict zones and the mistreatment of vulnerable women and
children.
Jolie spoke in Kenya to mark World Refugee Day. She visited a
training center on how to prevent sexual violence in conflict and met
with refugees from conflicts in Burundi, South Sudan, Somalia and Congo.
“The reality is that women and girls as well as boys and men can
still be raped with near-total impunity in conflict zones around the
world, and there are still appalling cases of rape and mistreatment of
vulnerable women, children and men by peacekeepers sent to protect
them,” she said.
Jolie added: “The horror of sexual violence is compounded when it is
carried out by someone in uniform who has a taken an oath to protect.”
The way people treat refugees, the majority of who are women and
children, is a measure of humanity, she said, according to a statement
by the U.N. refugee agency.
“Not only have they had to flee extreme violence or persecution, lost
everything and witnessed the death of family members, but they have
also had to face so much abuse and intolerance and hardship. They are
doing their best to carry on with minimal support, trying to live lives
of dignity against impossible odds,” Jolie said.
Kenya is home to nearly 491,000 refugees from conflicts in
neighboring countries. A Kenyan court recently stopped the government
from closing what had been the world’s largest refugee camp, Dadaab, and
sending more than 200,000 people back to Somalia. The court said the
government had not proved Somalia is safe for refugees to return.

UNHCR
Special Envoy Angelina Jolie marked World Refugee Day 2017 visiting
adolescent refugee girls in Nairobi.
Ms. Jolie met around 20 refugee girls, who are unaccompanied or
separated from their parents and are now living in the Heshima Kenya
Safe House and participating in a Girls’ Empowerment Programme.

The
girls have fled extreme violence or persecution in Democratic Republic
of the Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Somalia, Burundi, and Rwanda. Almost
all have suffered sexual and gender-based violence, robbing them of
their childhoods. Many have given birth after being raped, or are
pregnant. They told the Special Envoy about their personal stories and
their lives today.
Angelina Jolie said:

“Over half of all refugees and
displaced people worldwide are women and children. How we treat them is a
measure of our humanity as nations. On World Refugee day my only ask is
that people consider the pain and suffering of young girls like these.
Not only have they had to flee extreme violence or persecution, lost
everything and witnessed the death of family members, but they have also
had to face so much abuse and intolerance and hardship. They are doing
their best to carry on, with minimal support trying to live lives on
dignity against impossible odds. It was an honour to spend the day with
them.”

It was Angelina Jolie’s third visit to Kenya,
home to nearly 491,000 refugees from neighbouring Somalia, South Sudan,
DRC, Burundi and other countries in the region. Most of the 67,000 urban
refugees in Kenya struggle to survive on handouts from UNHCR and other
humanitarian organizations, and many are struggling to recover from
horrifying abuse and terror endured before or during their flight.

Among
the refugees in Kenya are 101,713 from South Sudan, which has now
become the biggest new factor in global forced displacement after the
disastrous break-up of peace efforts in July 2016 contributed to an
outflow of 737,400 people by the end of the year.

The
Special Envoy said: “Kenya hosts close to half a million refugees and we
at UNHCR are very grateful to the people and government of Kenya for
that.”

In all, Heshima Kenya’s Girls’ Empowerment
Programme helps some 200 refugee girls, including those in the Safe
House. They are provided with education, and training in a variety of
skills to enable them to become self-reliant.
Benedict, who oversees the Heshima Kenya programme, described his
motivation in helping the refugees: “When I see them, I don’t see
refugees, I see human beings who are suffering not out of choice but
because of circumstances beyond their control.”

With
the option of resettlement scarce, Heshima Kenya focuses on helping the
refugees to fully integrate within the Kenyan community. This approach
is also being championed by UNHCR and its partners in international
talks that aim to forge a new Global Compact on Refugees next year.

“When
you empower them, you bring them dignity,” Benedict said. “They don’t
need to rely on anyone. The Kenyan government can also start to
appreciate them – as taxpayers, employers and consumers with purchasing
power.”

I LOVE ANGELINA FOR INSPIRING MIYAVI TO FOLLOW IN HER HUMANITARIAN FOOTSTEPS

melody_lee_ishihara#WithRefugees Today Is World Refugee Day. We all hope that one day we would never have to use the word refugee again. #UNHCRhttps://www.instagram.com/p/BVkA1dHDNVR/?taken-by=melody_lee_ishihara

Angelina Jolie Lobbies for Peace in the Perfect Summer Suit----------------------------------------------------------Angelina Jolie plays many roles—actress, director, mother, philanthropist—and earlier today in Nairobi, the United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees Special Envoy gave a speech at the International Peace Support Training Center on preventing sexual violence. Jolie typically sticks to black and white in her working wardrobe, but for today’s appearance, the Academy Award winner slipped into a sand-colored suit that was both appropriate for the occasion and easygoing enough for the (almost) summer heat.What set Jolie’s suit apart from the Saint Laurent ensembles she often sports was the silhouette and color. The boyish, boxy jacket and tab-front trousers had an elegantly rumpled appeal in the khaki shade, while Everlane’s linen scoop-neck tee lent a hint of texture. Her nude espadrille wedge sandals, meanwhile, gave the look a lift in true utilitarian style.